Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Save The Turtles, Save The World

Since I was only in school I have always heard of the WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature). Who hasn’t? It’s the most well-known wildlife and environmental preservation organization in the world.Shamefully I never used to pay much attention to WWF simply because I was under the mindset that heck… there were plenty of people in the world losing their lives each day because of starvation, war and natural disasters, so why don’t we help them first before we help the animals?That was until I did a bit more research on what the WWF’s mission is and learned that it isn’t all about saving wildlife... it’s about saving the world and all the people in it.

And when I say saving the world.. I don’t mean in the silly “Save the Cheerleader Save The World” kind of way, I mean really saving the world.Here is an organization that works full-time in saving the world but something we all neglect… why? Because they aren’t saving the world in a sexy way… there’s not saving it from Dr. Evil who wants to blow the planet Earth upor they’re not saving it from a bad hero called Sylar who wants to…. I don’t know… rule the world?

Then of course the common question is… “How are they saving the world? They’re just saving the animals?”

Well let me explain this.

Everything in the ecosystem plays a part in ensuring the world revolves the way it’s meant to. Take for example frogs and bats who are responsible for keeping the population of insects in check.

What happens if frogs and bats were to suddenly become extinct?There will be a rise in pest attacks on our food crops and a spread of diseases because don’t forget, mosquitoes are responsible for spreading Malaria or Dengue and frogs eat mosquitoes.What about wild animals?

Wild animals interact with each other and with plants in the forest in very complex ways. Without animals, the forests may die and when the forests are gone, our water supply will be affected and climate change will become worse.

Heck all of a sudden it’ll be snowing in Penang and you know how many people will die if that happens?You know how many people go fry Kuay Teow in Penang without their shirts on each day?

Hence the WWF does the almost unimaginable job of keeping our ecosystem in balance. If they fail… we all die! But yet, they’re not given enough credit.. maybe because people (like myself not too long ago) used to misunderstand their purpose.

Their purpose isn’t just to take care of PandasIt’s to Save The World with all of us in it!

Anyway, just recently WWF approached me and asked if I were willing to write something for them on my blog and I agreed to do it for free. That’s the very least I can do considering how little I had done for them all my life.

WWF’s current focus is on saving our Sea Turtles.

Now there are seven species of sea turtles, four of which can be found in Malaysian waters and one of which: the Leatherback turtle, is going to be locally extinct in Rantau Abang, Terengganu.Recently only a few have followed their routine of returning to nest there and WWF feels it may be because of the growing global demand in turtle meat, eggs and shells which cause them to be hunted in the wild and the use of 10-inch or larger size mesh fishing nets which these turtles often get caught in and drown.

Pollution as usual also plays a part.

Leatherbacks which feed on jellyfish very often mistake floating plastic bags for jellyfish and end up dying after eating them.How bad is that?

Imagine going to a restaurant and eating a dish that looks like a steak, but is actually a plastic bag in disguise and you don’t even know it until it’s all in our stomach and you start feeling like you’re gonna die.Some of these things like collection of turtle eggs without a license and trade in turtle shells and other parts are already made illegal but making the laws are one thing, enforcing it is another.

Like it or not, enforcements costs money and that’s why WWF is out looking for donors who might help their goal of enhancing enforcement of legislation. With less than 1% of the coastline of Malaysia protected as nesting homes for turtles, WWF also needs funds to advocate for the establishment of more protected areas.

How Can We Help?

Well for one we can SMS WWF *Space* Your full name *Space* Email and send to 39398. Each SMS donates RM3.But the best thing about these WWF initiatives is that we can all save the world in our own ways without having to spend too much money like

i) Don’t eat dishes or buy products made out of these endangered species like turtle eggs, tiger meat and etc etc. This is something I already don’t do and will NEVER do.

ii) Don’t litter! So the next time you go to our beautiful Penang beach. DON’T throw a plastic bag in there. It’s gonna end up somewhere sooner or later and hopefully not in someone’s stomach.

Yes so don’t do all that ok? Or“I Keel Yew!”

If you wanna learn more about what the WWF does in Malaysia and donate, check out their website here.

Hey man..nice write up!! I think their work is awesome and its much deeper then wat ppl actually know and maybe we all don realise the importance of it yet ...but soon will!! This is one NGO that definately should get more support!!

erm... lol talk about shark fin.. do u know how they treated the shark in order to give us the shark fin?

the catch the shark... cut off their fin (when the shark is alive) and throw them back to the sea (alive) the shark cant swim, and left alone drown in the sea and die of starvation.. if u want to have further information, you can always youtube shark fin...

im one of the ppl that against consuming shark fin.. (and i already did prevent my cousin from serving shark fin during his wedding) :D

besides shark, turtles, or etc lots of animals are cruelty treated... In order to get the tigers' part, they farm tigers n kill tigers.. some illegal poacher stranggle tigers to death... lots of sickening things happen tho..

and... bile bear.. another sad story for the bear... lol i talk too much.. u can google or wiki the info..

It's a nice idea, but it's actually an overly romantic idea. Allow me to present the alternate point of view.

Animals should be allowed to naturally go extinct, because that's what happens. Propping up animals that are going extinct endangers equally the ecosystem. Famous example: Yellowstone National Park. They were running out of elks in the early 20th century, so park rangers started a wolf-shooting spree. Then the elk pop. exploded and all sorts of plants start disappearing from the park as elks overeat. The wolves went extinct instead. Decades later, the park rangers decided, oh well ... and RE-INTRODUCED wolves into the park.

Yalah, I know, very un-PC point of view. The other aspect of this issue is also how you classify humans. Do you think of humans as part of the global biological ecosystem, or do you classify humans as an external force exerting effects on the biosystem? If you do, then it's just natural that exploding human pop. will cause other animals to die out ... and in the long term, cause our destruction, or at least some form of decimation. We are the dinosaurs of our time.

Does it mean we shouldn't be keeping animals from going extinct? Please. That's black-and-white thinking. Humans can do whatever they want - that is the whole point of 'nature', part of the 'natural process'. But the argument that we're 'saving' the ecosystem by keeping near-extinct animals alive is false.

It's a nice idea, but it's actually an overly romantic idea. Allow me to present the alternate point of view.

Animals should be allowed to naturally go extinct, because that's what happens. Propping up animals that are going extinct endangers equally the ecosystem. Famous example: Yellowstone National Park. They were running out of elks in the early 20th century, so park rangers started a wolf-shooting spree. Then the elk pop. exploded and all sorts of plants start disappearing from the park as elks overeat. The wolves went extinct instead. Decades later, the park rangers decided, oh well ... and RE-INTRODUCED wolves into the park.

Yalah, I know, very un-PC point of view. The other aspect of this issue is also how you classify humans. Do you think of humans as part of the global biological ecosystem, or do you classify humans as an external force exerting effects on the biosystem? If you do, then it's just natural that exploding human pop. will cause other animals to die out ... and in the long term, cause our destruction, or at least some form of decimation. We are the dinosaurs of our time.

Does it mean we shouldn't be keeping animals from going extinct? Please. That's black-and-white thinking. Humans can do whatever they want - that is the whole point of 'nature', part of the 'natural process'. But the argument that we're 'saving' the ecosystem by keeping near-extinct animals alive is false.